Sentence Theory
To analyze
sentence writing, you need to stop thinking just in the terms you were taught
in grammar school and start thinking in more cognitive terms. In other words, making effective sentences
isn't just about proper syntax (grammar), but effective semantic (cognitive
meaning and process).
1) Your method of
highlighting should be efficient as possible.
2) Your
highlighting method should be efficient as possible.
In 2,
"highlighting method" is initially harder to understand because it
presents the concept all at once, as a multiword object. In 1, "method of highlighting"
presents the concept of highlighting first, and then modifies that concept with
"method of". This makes the
concept easier to understand at first.
On the other hand, "highlighting method" makes the full
concept one object with clear boundaries.
This makes it easier to abstract away that concept and use it as a part
of other concepts more easily.
3) Use a
highlighting method that is efficient as possible.
2 is
theoretically descriptive while 3 is concretely active. The frame you want to place the user in
determines which you should use. 2
gives the user an abstract framework, which can then be filled out with
following sentences that describe various highlighting methods. 3 tells the user what to do, which would fit
in with a list of things to do which make note-taking effective. 3 can be interpreted as rude, but only if it
is used in the wrong context.
4) Use an
efficient highlighting method.
4 sacrifices the
qualifier "as possible" and changes the concept of efficient from a
qualifier to part of the object. 4 is
quite unwieldy as a way to introduce the concept of an "efficient
highlighting method". So, you
should only use it as a placeholder after the concept has already been presented. On the other hand, if your user is skilled
with abstraction framing, you can go ahead and use multiword objects like 4
does and save a considerable amount of space and reading time.
5) Efficient
highlighting method use...
5 goes to the
extreme and makes the concept of using efficient highlighting methods one
massive object. Previously, the user
was directed to do so something with an object. Now we are talking about the act of doing as if it were an
object. The density of 5's object is
almost completely unsuitable for presenting the concept. It can however be used as a placeholder if
that's what your really mean.
So you see that
the content of a sentence can be compacted to various degrees into a multiword
concept. As you do so, you lose the
organic interaction between the smaller concepts and must rely on the user's
abstract skill to keep up. Ideally, you
should organize a series of sentences so that the initial sentences present
concepts organically while the later sentences present placeholders. Done optimally, this can logarithmically
sift the amount of phrasing you need to encode information. Don't lose sight of the local context however. Always keep the user in the correct
cognitive frame for the current sentence and the first part of the following
sentence.
John LeFlohic
October 23, 2001